The International and Central Hockey Leagues confirmed the
expected on Tuesday in a joint news release announcing the
formation of an "AA super league."

The announcement of a letter of intent to combine forces in what
will be known as the CHL essentially was all that announcment
revealed.

Exactly how the combined league will look and work will be
determined over the coming days, at the CHL's scheduled summer
meetings in Phoenix this week and at a similar IHL summer session
in Las Vegas in mid-June.

IHL commissioner Dennis Hextall, however, said plans call for
four teams - the Quad-City Mallards, Fort Wayne Komets, Dayton Gems
and Bloomington PrairieThunder - to join 13 CHL crews in what will
be called the Central Hockey League.

That would leave 2009-2010 IHL outfits in Flint and Port Huron,
Mich., out in the cold. But Hextall said even that number carried a
caveat.

"Tomorrow we could have anywhere from four to seven," the
first-year IHL boss said. "We're working on some other ones."

Among the countless other details that must be ironed out in the
coming weeks is arranging a possible vote by players in the
non-union IHL to approve terms of an existing collective bargaining
agreement for the unionized CHL, Mallards managing owner Chris
Lencheski suggested.

Lencheski also predicted the two leagues will settle on playing
by CHL rules - enlisting its $10,450 weekly salary cap, 19-player
roster and four-veteran limit.

He also predicted the league will play a 64-game CHL schedule
that is two games fewer than the IHL was scheduled to play next
year and six fewer games than the IHL played last winter.

Hextall said the likely outcome from the meetings will be an IHL
division within the CHL, with a limited amount of inter-division
games on the schedule.

Depending on how many former IHL teams ultimately survive, a few
current CHL teams could be part of the Midwest-based division.

"I compare it to the American and National Leagues in baseball,"
Hextall said. "They have their own leagues with a little crossover
schedule."

Lencheski - who will cut a London business meeting short to
attend the CHL meetings Thursday and Friday in Phoenix -said he
favors a more inclusive schedule than the one described by
Hextall.

"We're going to be playing a mixture of teams," he said. "To
what level, I don't know. I would like to play the Arizona
Sundogs."

Lencheski confirmed there is a buy-in cost for incoming IHL
teams, but would not name a number.

He also said that price and a certain increase in the Mallards
travel budget are offset by the benefits of joining forces with the
CHL.

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"If it's a little bit more travel to create greater stability
and a much stronger league, it's worth it," he said. "I believe,
and I think others do too, this is a really great thing for minor
league hockey."

Scott Mullen, executive director of the i wireless Center,
certainly is a member of that camp, even if it means fewer games at
his building.

"If you get rid of some of those weekday games, it should be
good," he said. "They can focus on higher attendance for the
weekends."

The combined league will be the fourth to host a Q-C pro hockey
team in a matter of five years.

IHL teams also entertained an opportunity to join the ECHL in
the last month, but, with a new minimum of 17 teams, Lencheski said
the CHL offered more strength in numbers.

Lencheski declined to discuss how the change in leagues might
impact a potential sale of the team by his QCHT LLC ownership
group.

"I don't want to address that question," he said. "That's
unfair. I didn't do (this) for that reason. You do it for the
stability of the organization."